Last Friday, with nary a cloud to be seen and 24-degree weather, Paul, our pal Mike, and I decided it was a perfect day to play hookey and to see what these trails were all about.
As with all of our hikes, we had a moment of insecurity at first -- there are 26kms of trails, yes, but we didn't know which one to take. Some of them looped. Some of them went on and on and on and never came back. We had 2 hours to kill before a Sushi Date with another pal so we were eager to have fun and not get lost (for once).
Our first loop was a short kilometre-long trail that ended up at a lookout onto the dam-created falls. It was wet. it was cold. It was breathtaking.
We marched back to our starting point and took another trail that gained substantial elevation. Before we new it, we were above the river at Capilano lake and looking down over the falls below. It was devastatingly beautiful. We paused, took it all in, carried forth.
Next stop: the Salmon Hatchery. We worked out way back down in elevation via a windy path, ridden with gnarly tree roots and breaks of sunshine through the canopy. At the bottom was a Salmon Hatchery with thousands upon thousands of Pacific, Chinook, and Wild Red salmon ... from minnow stage to just before release. The Hatchery releases approximately 600,000 salmon into our water system every year, to ensure a healthy population of fish to hunt, eat, and admire in our lakes and oceans. An admirable feat.
Eventually, we found our way back to the car, and our mini exploration of just a few of Capilano River's trails was prematurely over. (After all, there was sushi to be had! We couldn't be late!)
Beamer was sufficiently exhausted, and the boys were sufficiently sweaty. I got my fill of nature for the day. (And my fill of sushi later!)
Ah... summer in BC. Let the fun times begin!
